The present invention generally relates to image information processing, and more particularly, to a novel image information processing apparatus suitable for reproduction of hard copy images.
Copying equipment of the electrophotographic type has been widely employed in many fields of businesses and personal uses, since such equipment is capable of readily copying various documents at the location and at the number required.
Meanwhile, along with improvements in the performance of the copying equipment, the development of additional functions therefor has been continuously achieved, and a variety of such additional functions have already been placed into actual applications.
By way of example, there has been proposed a copying apparatus provided with a memory mode copy function in which, by storing the last read image formation in a semiconductor memory, processing at a higher speed is intended by omitting reading of a document in recopying, or provided with a communication function for notifying conditions of use or necessity of maintenance, etc. to external managing apparatus.
Moreover, in order to prevent secret information from being released, there is also proposed a print control practice in which outflow route search information such as date of copying, copying apparatus number, and the like is formed into codes to be padded into the copied images so as not to be recognized by the naked eye.
Incidentally, documents subjected to copying by copying equipment are broadly divided into original documents and reproduced documents obtained by the copying thereof Here, the word xe2x80x9coriginal documentxe2x80x9d means an original text for the management of documents by a user of the copying apparatus. Normally, such original documents include documents prepared not by the copying apparatus, such as various printed matters including books, printed items by a printer, or hand-written documents, etc. However, there may be cases where documents prepared by other copying apparatus are used as the original documents.
In general offices, circulation or distribution of copied items by a copying apparatus is frequently carried out, and there are many cases where copied items are further made from the copied items (i.e., the cases where copying of the reproduced document is effected). The reproduced item from the original document (a primary reproduced item) is referred to as a xe2x80x9cchildxe2x80x9d copy, and a reproduced item from the child copy (a secondary reproduced item) is called a xe2x80x9cgrandchildxe2x80x9d copy.
In such a case as noted above, although the image reproducibility in the electrophotographic process is high, the image quality is gradually deteriorated as the reproduction is repeated, and the image quality of the xe2x80x9cgrandchildxe2x80x9d copy tends to be slightly inferior to that of the xe2x80x9cchildxe2x80x9d copy.
Therefore, there are often cases where it is desired to obtain a xe2x80x9cchildxe2x80x9d copy with a favorable image quality by using the original document instead of the reproduced document when the document available at hand is of the reproduced document.
Apart from the problems related to the image quality, in the case where, for example, the document at hand is of a reproduced document copied from part of a book, it is sometimes desired to know the content of pages before and after the page at hand, i.e., the content in the pages not available at hand.
Moreover, when the document at hand is of a reproduced document prepared by amending part of the original document, there have occurred many cases where it is desired to know the content of the amended portion.
However, in the conventional practice, there have been such problems that the place where the original document is kept (or person keeping the original document) can not be easily found, and thus, the work for searching the original document is troublesome, or that it is impossible to obtain the xe2x80x9cchildxe2x80x9d copy in the case where the original document has already been discarded.
Accordingly, an essential object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing apparatus in which, in a reproduction of a document by a copying apparatus, it is intended to readily obtain a reproduced item which is based on the original document.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image information processing apparatus of the above described type, which is simple in construction, functionally stable and with a high reliability.
In accomplishing these and other objects, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image information processing apparatus which includes an image reading means which reads an image of a document and outputs image data, a document judging means which judges whether the read document is an original document or a reproduced document according to whether or not specific data is present in the image data, an inquiry means for visualizing inquiry data related to the original document into a visible image, the inquiry data comprising bibliographic data about the original document, and a control means which controls the inquiry means to visualize the inquiry data designated by the specific data into a visible image, when the read document is judged to be a reproduced document by said document judging means.
In another aspect of the present invention, the image information processing apparatus includes an input means for inputting inquiry data related to the original document, said inquiry data comprising bibliographic data about the original document a data forming means for producing specific data designating the inquiry data, an image information reading means which reads an image of a document and outputs image data, a document judging means which judges whether the read document is an original document or a reproduced document according to whether or not specific data is present in the image data, a composing means for preparing composed data based on the image data and the specific data, an image forming means for forming an image on a recording medium based on the composed data, and a control means which controls said composing means to prepare composed data based on the specific data and image data prepared by the data forming means, thereby to execute the image formation by said image forming means based on said composed data, when the read document is judged to be the original document by said document judging means.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the image information processing apparatus includes an image reading means which reads an image of a document and outputs image data, a document judging means which judges whether the read document is an original document or a reproduced document according to whether or not specific data is present in the image data, a memory means which preliminarily stores the image data of the original document, an image forming means for forming an image on a recording medium based on the image data, and a control means which controls said image forming means to execute image formation based on the image data stored in said memory, a reproduced document by the document judging means.
In a still further aspect of the present invention, the image information processing apparatus includes an image reading means which reads an image of a document and outputs image data, a memory means which preliminarily stores predetermined image data, an image judging means for judging whether or not the image data of the read document is the same data as the stored predetermined image data, an image forming means for forming an image on a recording medium based on image data, and a control means which controls said image forming means to execute image formation based on the image data of the read document when the image data of the read document is judged to be different from the stored image data by said image judging means, and for controlling said image forming means to execute image formation by said image forming means based on the predetermined image data stored in the memory means when the read image data is judged to be the same as the stored predetermined image data.
In the function of the image information processing apparatus of the present invention as described above, with respect to individual original documents having original image information, inquiry information corresponding to each is preliminarily memorized. The inquiry information is bibliographic information for facilitating work to search out the original document such as the name of the original document, storage position, etc.
In the case where the document to be processed by the apparatus of the present invention is the document reproduced from the original document, the code image data indicating the inquiry information is contained in the image data outputted by the image reading means. In other words, the reproduced document includes the image in which the original image and the code image for specifying the original document are composed.
Specific inquiry information is displayed based on the code image data, whereby an operator can readily find out about the original document on the basis of the reproduced document.
The code image for the reproduced document may be of an image obtained by encoding the inquiry information itself or of an image obtained, for example, by encoding the identification code imparted to the inquiry information. It is to be noted that the inquiry information is inputted through key operation by an operator, through wireless or radio communication by a transmitter, by network communication with external devices, etc.
On the other hand, upon reading of the image information of the original document, the image data is memorized as the original image information so as to correspond to the identification code, and thereafter, when the reproduced image corresponding to this original document is read, image formation is effected based on the original image information. Thus, even when the document is of the reproduced document, a reproduced item having the same image quality as in the reproduction by the original document may be obtained.